


Every Kloud has a Silver Lining

by Aki (Akiko_Natsuko)



Category: K (Anime)
Genre: Angst, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Family, Fluff and Angst, Friendship/Love, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Memories, Nightmares, Reunions, Scars
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-09
Updated: 2018-11-09
Packaged: 2019-08-20 10:02:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,972
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16553687
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Akiko_Natsuko/pseuds/Aki
Summary: Set Post-Series. The immortal king is not as gone as everyone thinks, but coming back is not as easy as you might think especially for a solitary king and his new clan.





	Every Kloud has a Silver Lining

_‘Kuroh…Neko…Where are you?’_

“Shiro!” Kuroh woke with his King’s name on his lips, bolting upright before he was fully awake, his eyes wild as he scanned the room with Shiro’s voice still ringing in his ears. In the half-light of the lamps outside filtering through the window, he could make out Neko’s sleeping form at the end of the futon. He was surprised that she had managed to sleep through his loud awakening, although he was thankful for it as his gaze drifted around the otherwise empty room before landing on the red parasol that was propped nearby. The only physical evidence they had that their King had existed. Oh, they could still feel his sanctum, a muted, mournful humming beneath their skin that would fade with time if Shiro was truly gone, but that stupid parasol was something they could hold. Something irrefutable even the eyes of outsiders, proof that Shiro had existed.

    However, with his King’s voice echoing in his ears and his heart still hammering in his chest, a familiar ache following it as he realised that it must’ve been nothing more than a dream. With the pain, came the crushing weight of grief that came with thoughts of their King and he sighed, knowing that there would be no more sleep for him tonight. Carefully pushing the covers aside he slid off the futon, rearranging them around Neko, envious of the peaceful expression she wore, although he knew it would disappear the moment she woke and remembered what had happened. For now, he would leave her to that peace, and he crept around, dressing swiftly and with practised silence so that he wouldn’t disturb her.

   He lingered briefly when he was done, eyes fixed on the parasol, tracing the damage that had been inflicted on it during the battle on the Island. Neko had done what she could to patch it up, but it still spoke volumes about what happened – about the fight that he should’ve been there for. Grief and guilt mingled, and his shoulders slumped, bowing beneath the weight of them as he forced himself to turn away and slip out of the room.

*

    He had little to no appetite, but Master Ichigen has always impressed on him the importance of eating and besides Neko was always hungry. However, whereas before cooking had been a source of enjoyment and pride, he found himself moving mechanically around the small kitchen, his movements more stilted than usual as he found his thoughts lingering as always on his King.

    It had been a month since the final, devastating battle between Suoh Mikoto and Munakata Reisi, seeing the fall of the former just before his sword had fallen, averting a far worse tragedy. A month since the idiotic, naïve boy…man, that he had once tried to kill, had become their King, welcoming them into his clan, into his Sanctum, only to leave them behind when he had sacrificed himself to remove the threat posed by the Colourless King.

A month.

      At first, Kuroh had allowed himself to be sucked into Neko’s determined search for their King, burying his initial certainty that Shiro was gone, and letting her desperate faith in Shiro carry him along and give him hope. However, after weeks of waiting for some sign that they weren’t alone, that Shiro was out there somewhere, and with the evidence of just how devastating the battle had been on the island, he had found that belief fading, the hope curling and dying as he found himself adrift. It was. It was only for Neko’s sake that he hid the fact that he had stopped believing that Shiro was coming back, and why he concealed the nightmares that plagued him night after night, dredged to the surface by his guilt over following his King’s final order.

     Kuroh knew that he wasn’t helping either of them by hiding those things, but Neko had become his lifeline of sorts in this Shiro-less world. The kids at the school still had only hazy memories of their saviour, if anything and the other clans had barely had a chance to know the Silver King, which meant that it fell to the two of them to keep Shiro’s memory alive.

“Shiro,” he whispered, abandoning his efforts as he moved across to the window, staring out over the city, highlighted now with the pale fingers of the rising sun before his gaze shifted upwards, taking in lightening sky. It was going to be a beautiful day, and for a moment he allowed himself to recall the exhilaration of flying through the air with Shiro. Even going so far as to let himself to wonder for a moment what it would have been like if the three of them had been able to resurrect the Himmelich and live high above the world, away from the conflicts of the others clans and everything that had happened. A wistful smile tugging at his lips, as he realised that they would’ve probably driven each other up the wall.

_Kuroh, where are you? Why aren’t you here?_

     Kuroh was wrenched from his wistful thoughts, tensing for a moment as the faint whisper rang through the air, to real to have been a figment of his imagination this time. Besides, he wasn’t asleep… and that realisation had him spinning around, as he searched the room with desperate eyes, ignoring the clatter as the cup he had been holding fell from suddenly nerveless hands.

“Shiro? Shiro are you there?” He cried. It felt foolish addressing what was apparently an empty room, but despite everything, he could feel something rising his chest, burning its way through the layers of grief and guilt. Hope. It took him a moment to place the feeling, little more than a desperate spark that he had started to think he would never feel again.

_I need…Kuroh?...Neko?...Where?_

“SHIRO!!” The high-pitched cry startled him, and Kuroh whirled, reaching blindly for a weapon, only to falter as Neko dashed into the room, skidding to a halt as she glanced around with a desperate yowl. It took a few seconds for her cry to register, and he’d automatically closed his eyes, realising that yet again she had forgotten about wearing clothes, only to freeze as it dawned on him just what she had shouted.

“You heard him too?!” He demanded.

“He’s not here?” The strain asked with tears beginning to brim in her mismatched eyes, and Kuroh hesitated before shaking his head, hating the way her shoulders immediately slumped. “But I heard him, he sounded so close,” she mewed, reassuring Kuroh that he wasn’t going insane, or at least if he was hearing things, then she was too, and he would have company in his insanity.

_Help Me!_

     They both froze as Shiro’s voice echoed through the small apartment once more, louder this time, as though he was right beside them although they still saw nothing. They also hadn’t missed the desperation in their King’s voice this time, turning towards each other, disbelief, fear and painful hope creeping into their expressions as they stared at one another.

“Shiro, where are you?” Kuroh was the first to find his voice, hands trembling as he reached out as though he would suddenly find Shiro standing in front of him, urgency in each word, Shiro’s desperation having cut him to the core. However, for now, he drew on his training, pushing his emotions aside and gesturing at Neko to remain quiet as he strained to hear a response, ignoring the hiss that met the gesture, and the way her eyes had narrowed.

_…Sanctum…I’m trying….break…help…Kuroh?...Neko?_

    The voice was fainter this time, Kuroh noted anxiously, the words having returned to their previous disjointed form and bile rose in the back of his throat as it dawned on him that it sounded like Shiro was being pulled away from them once more.  He couldn’t let himself focus on that thought. Instead, he frowned as he tried to make sense of the words. Sanctum? They were part of the Silver sanctum, the power humming under their skin was evidence of that, and he knew vaguely that while it wasn’t a physical place, it could be entered. That was how Shiro had trapped the Colourless King, containing him just long enough to get him to the Red King. However,  if Shiro was referring to the place where he had confronted the Colourless King, why couldn’t he escape on his own, as he had done so with ease once he had bested the other King.

“Clansmen,” Neko said softly, and he turned to look at her questioningly. “He shared his power with us, maybe we need to be closer to him for him to draw on us?” Kuroh blinked as her words sank in, silver eyes widening as he realised that for once what she was saying made a lot of sense. Back then the bond between them all had been new, tenuous and they had been physically close…if Neko was correct, then they just had to work out where was closest to Shiro was, or where he had been he amended, eyes widening.

The School.

“Neko get dressed,” he ordered, and despite her obvious irritation at the order – whether because of his tone, or the fact that she would have happily gone as she was, the Strain obeyed at once. “We’re coming Shiro,” he whispered to the air once he was alone, praying that Shiro was still close enough to hear him and that he would believe him. “Wait for us,’ he added as he moved across to collect his sword, strapping it on for the first time since his King had fallen.

****

     The pair made swift progress through the city in their animal forms, although Kuroh was cursing himself with each step because they could’ve already been there as the Gold Clan had arranged for them to remain in the small apartment that had been Shiro’s for a short term. They had tried, but it had hurt to sit at the table they had shared with him for far too short a time, to look up at the slightest noise and expect him to appear, and in the end, they had retreated to the city, trying to lose themselves in the hustle and bustle. It hadn’t worked, and now it was working against them as they darted through side-alleys and quieter roads, trying to avoid any potential conflict with Scepter 4 or Homra.

    It wouldn’t have been the first time since Shiro’s disappearance, as the Red clan, in particular, had already come after them a few times, seeking answers…and vengeance about what had happened to their fallen king, aware that Shiro had played a role in the final stages even if they didn’t know the exact details.

     Thankfully the early hour meant that their journey to the bridge was uneventful, and Neko’s abilities made it easy for them to slip past the security posts on the bridge, currently still being reinforced by Scepter 4 as the school worked to recover from the invasion and subsequent devastation. Even this early in the morning construction teams were getting to work, keen to get the damage repaired and life back to normal for the students and the city, and the pair were cautious as they skirted the various groups, unwilling to attract even unknowing attention when the possibility of seeing Shiro was so close.

    The crater where the Red King had fallen was impossible to miss even if they hadn’t been there before, and Kuroh felt a familiar pang at the sight of it, although it was forgotten in favour of dropping his animal form as he crested the ridge around it. “SHIRO!” He called before his fur had entirely faded, eyes darting back and forth as he searched for a familiar flash of silver, barely noting Neko mimicking him as she returned to her human form, moving up alongside him as she glanced around.

“SHIROOOOOO!” The Strain wailed when she realised that there was no immediate sign of Shiro, and Kuroh could only hope that no-one else on the island ventured near this part as there had been no volume control. Not that he could blame her, as he felt like howling Shiro’s name to the sky if it would bring their King back to them and…

_Where? You’re closer…_

    Shiro’s voice curled around them, a little stronger than his last message had been, but still sounding as though it was coming from miles away and Kuroh and Neko shared a frantic look, before Kuroh stepped forward, searching for something…anything that would indicate where there King was, but the crater was still, devoid of life beyond the two of them. “We’re here Shiro, tell us how to help you,” Kuroh’s voice cracked mid-plea, feeling increasingly helpless as he attempted to reach out through the clan bond, searching for the spark that had been Shiro’s presence in the humming vein of power, but finding nothing. All he could detect was the increasingly frantic Strain beside him. “Shiro, please…”

***

    Several hours passed without any change. They had searched the length and breadth of the crater without success, and no matter what they’d tried or said, they hadn’t been able to reach Shiro again, and the silence was beginning to weigh on them.

    Neko had taken to pacing around the edge of the Crater, alternating between forms as she became increasingly distressed at the lack of Shiro, hissing to herself under her breath as she tried every trick she knew to bring them closer to Shiro. Kuroh on the other hand, had taken up residence in the centre of the crater, silver eyes fixated on the sky above them as he reached out over and over through the clan bond, hoping for some sign from Shiro that would help them find them. He could feel Neko’s anxiety, the fear that she would never give voice to and it made him jittery, his hand straying to his sword, seeking out the reassurance it offered as once again his search was repaid with silence.

_Shiro, where are you?_

*

    It had been several hours since they’d arrived at the crater, and no matter what they tried they couldn’t figure out how to reach Shiro. Nor had they heard anything else from him. Neko had fallen silent a while ago, sitting on the ground and staring forlornly up at the sky, and Kuroh wished that he had the words to comfort her, but he could feel the weight of their failure pressing in on him.

    The sky was slowly beginning to darken, touched with shades of dusk when Kuroh detected a flickering in the clan bond beneath his skin. He had just started to focus on it, when it pulsed, sending a tingling sensation throughout his entire body and he shot to his feet, hand instinctively moving to grasp his sword’s hilt. The feel of it beneath his fingers calmed him, and he frowned, focusing on the fading pulse, tracing it back through the bond, and his eyes widened as he realised that it wasn’t coming from the island but from the city.

“Neko,” he called, startled to realise that she hadn’t reacted to the pulse, although taking in her agitated state perhaps that was to be expected. “Can you stay here? There’s something I want to check out.” He wasn’t sure if he was correct, and there was no way he was willing to risk Shiro returning to find neither of them within sight, not when he had called out to them, begging for their help.

“But…Shiro?” She mewed anxiously running up to him.

“If you hear from him or he appears, you can let me know through the clan link,” he reminded her, reaching up to flick her lightly in the forehead, reminding her that they were more than just the two of them. “I’ll do the same if I find anything.” _If_ not _when_ , he hated the fact that he couldn’t be more confident – that even now, with Shiro’s voice ringing in his ears, he still doubted that they would be able to get their King back. After a moment, Neko nodded with a faint mew, before moving off to resume her pacing from earlier. Satisfied that she would stay put for now and that Shiro wouldn’t be alone if he were wrong, Kuroh shifted forms and bolted back towards the bridge and the city beyond, praying that his sudden intuition was correct.

****

     The trip back to the city had been less smooth than their morning run to the island, and more than once he was forced to double back to avoid confrontations with the other Clans. He wasn’t sure if they were looking for him, or even looking for a fight, but with his King out there…waiting…he wasn’t about to risk it.

    It felt like too much, and too little time had passed when he finally burst out onto the rooftop where he had first met Shiro, shifting back to human as he stumbled forward, eyes darting around, hoping to find his King. To find something. Instead, he was greeted with more emptiness, and dismay threatened to overwhelm for a moment before he was brought up short by another pulse in the clan bond, this one far stronger than before and close. So close that it made his skin tingle, hair standing on end as he whirled around, searching, seeking.

“Shiro! Shiro, I’m here!” He called.

_I feel you._

_Help._

_Focus…focus…clan._

    The words were closer and clearer, and Kuroh immediately obeyed, closing his eyes as he focused all of his thoughts and power on the pulses that were now flickering almost constantly through the bond. Pushing through the grief and doubt that had consumed him, he dragged up every memory of his time with Shiro, the memories that he had tried to bury in his grief, but which he now immersed himself in, making himself feel each and every emotion. Distantly he was aware of the spark that represented Neko, growing brighter in the back of his mind as she realised what he was doing, and he could feel her moving, heading towards them as fast as she could. That wasn’t all she was doing, her mind linking with his as she joined his efforts, and the swell of emotion that came with it almost sent him crashing to his knees, as tears that belonged to them both began to trickle down his cheeks.

It was too much and too little.

“SHIRO!!” He screamed at the sky as the emotions and memories became too much, the clan bond humming so violently that he had lost all sense of where he ended, and Neko began. There was a pause, enough for a seed of doubt to take root, but then the sky above him flickered, only to be rent by a flash of silver light so intense that it caused Kuroh to see stars even though his eyes had still been closed.

    Eventually, he felt it fading away, and slowly he removed the arm that he had flung up to protect his eyes, blinking as he inched them open, his vision swimming with sparkling lights for a minute. It took a few more heavy blinks to clear his sight completely, and there was still a haziness to the corner of his eyes as he glanced around, heart twisting with desperation.

     The sight that met his eyes had him blinking away fresh tears, eyes widening as he watched silvery tendrils of light disappearing into the darkening sky, leaving behind an all-too-familiar figure lying crumpled on the far side of the rooftop. _Shiro._ He was barely aware of stumbling to his feet, unsure of when he had finally fallen to his knees, moving forward in an almost dream-like state, not daring to look away from the still figure even as he sent out a silent summons to Neko, urging her to hurry.

“Shiro?” He whispered as he finally the figure, dropping to his knees, trembling as he reached out to turn the other over. A wordless gasp slipped out before he could stop it as he took in the damage that had been done to the school uniform Shiro wore, the shirt reduced to tatters, giving him a painfully clear view of the vibrant red scar that now covered Shiro’s chest, lying directly over his heart. He reached out towards this evidence of what his King had suffered, while the other fumbled for a pulse. Shuddering as he felt it thudding reassuringly beneath his fingertips. Alive, he was alive. He was back and…

“K-Kuroh?” His frantic, racing thoughts were brought to a halt at the faint whisper, so quiet that for a moment he thought that he’d imagined it. However, his hopeful glance was met with the beautiful sight of Shiro’s eyes slowly inching open, although he seemed incapable of opening them past half-mast. It took a few seconds as Shiro’s unfocused gaze drifted around, before dazed amber slowly focused, rising to meet silver, and an unrestrained smile spread across Kuroh’s face as he found himself under a gaze that he had started to think he would never feel again. The hand that had been pressed against his King’s neck moved to grasp one of Shiro’s hands, and the warmth of the hand in his confirming that this was real, and he swallowed back a sob at the confirmation.

“Welcome back,” he murmured, surprised at how steady his voice was as he felt anything but calm at the moment, the simple words drawing a weak smile from his King. Shiro shifted slightly, fingers curling around Kuroh’s hand in acknowledgement as he blinked wearily up at his clansman, seemingly drinking in the sight of him, as much as Kuroh was drinking in the sight of Shiro.

“Thank you.” There was a world of meaning in the whispered words, and Kuroh tightened his hold on his King’s hand, eyes not shifting away from Shiro, drinking in the sight of his very much alive King. Gradually his overwhelming joy began to settle into a background hum that he knew would linger for days. Dimming a little as he finally started to take note of the tiredness in the amber eyes that were beginning to droop once more, the paler than usual skin and the lines of pain that were marring Shiro’s face and his expression darkened, frowning in concern.

“Are you hurt?” He demanded, voice sharp in his worry, eyes darting back to the scar now marring Shiro’s skin. It looked as though it was healed, but it was still fresh and sore – and a frisson of fear running through him at the sight of what had come so close to stealing Shiro from them.

“I’m fine,” Shiro muttered unconvincingly, and Kuroh scowled at him. “I’m just tired,” he amended, seeing the look he was getting for his obviously untruthful answer. In response Kuroh sighed, before carefully pulling the smaller man closer, easing him into his lap and feeling the clan bond beginning to settle a little under the weight of Shiro resting against him.

“Rest, I’ll take care of you,” he ordered, voice soft and soothing, his free hand moving to card through the silvery hair and with a sigh Shiro relaxed against him, leaning into the touch. It didn’t take long for amber eyes to slide shut, Shiro surrendering to his exhaustion and Kuroh pulled him closer, contentment welling up through the concern as he held his King. He could feel Neko moving towards them, the bond clearer than it had been since Shiro had disappeared, and he knew that she wouldn’t be long and then they could take Shiro home.


End file.
